EuroEconomica, Vol 33, No 2 (2014)

Globalization - Different approaches

Viorica PUSCACIU¹, Florin-Dan PUSCACIU², Rose-Marie PUSCACIU³

¹ LUMINA University of South-Est Europe, Romania, viorica.puscaciu@lumina.org

²Faculty of Economic Sciences, Danubius University, Romania, fdpuscaciu@univ-danubius.ro

³ Faculty of Economic Sciences, Danubius University, Romania,

rosemarie.puscaciu@univ-danubius.ro

Abstract. In this paper we investigate the different approaches of the globalization phenomenon. Despite the geographical distancesm, the link between people are ever more strong on different ways and plans: from technology between political, economical, cultural world events, and many other aspects. So, the link between globalization and democracy, and its impact on the most important social and economic matters. We also surprise the impact of the internet revolution and its corolar e-commerce, and its consequences, sometimes unpredictible ones. Another annalysed problem is that of the governments trying, and sometimes succeeding to controll the money, products, peole and their ideas that freely move inside the national frontiers, thus going to slower or to stop the progress. Nevertheless, this global interraction between people also create phenomena of insecurity on different ways: terrorism, traffic of arms, drugs, economical aggresions causing the environment, and other inconvenient facts and situations.

Keywords: global homogenization, political-economical development, geographical distances

1 Conceptual approach of globalization

During the last decades global environment, sustainable development – both as a necessity and also as desire of our generation for the future ones, together with all the consequences on social, economic and political plans have became more and more intertwined.

Globalization represents the process by which the geographical distance becomes a less important factor in the estableshment and the development of transborder relations of economic, political, socio-cultural origin. The network relations and dependences earn a greater potential for becoming internationally and globally. As for definition, this phenomenon is differently defined by various specialists and annalysts of the field. So, despite that the world global is over four hundred years old, but the term of globalisation appears in the 1960’s (Waters, 2001), when Malcolm Waters define globalisation as a social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding. But as a term, globalization became most prominent during the second half of the 1980’s. So, Mike Featherstone¹ analyses the extent to which we are witness to a globalization of culture. The author offers differing explanations for trends towards global unification and their relation to an economic world-system. He explores the emergence of `third cultures', such as international law, the financial markets and media conglomerates, as elements which transcend the boundaries of the nation state. As well as examining the extent, causation and consequences of global homogenization, the authors consider its implication for the social sciences.

Later on, Dreher, Gaston and Martens made a comprehensive research on analyzing globalisation and its impact on the most important social and economic matters, mentioning that the recently issue of „sustainablility” has reached the mainstream: „are the forces of globalisation ultimately contributing to growth and opportunity – or to destruction and chaos?”²

Emanuel Richter precised that: „globalization is the global network which welded together previously disparate communities on this planet into mutual dependence and a unit of a single world”.³

Martin Albrow assertained that: „globalization reffers to all these processes by which the nations of the world are conscripted in a single world society – the global society”⁴.

Anthony Giddens mentioned that: „globalization could be defined as the intensification of the social relations all over the world, that link such in a manner the far off localities, so as the events which take place are looked by the angle of similar others, happened to many miles far away and uside down”.⁵

Hans Blommestein said that for the first time in history, today, a global technological market transforms the financial world, that of the affairs, that political and the psycology, making them unrecognizabled.⁶

Joseph Stiglitz⁷ underlined the influence of globalization upon democracy, that seems to replace the dictatorship of the national elites, with the dictatorship of the international finance.

John Gray points out that globalization that is seen as an interconnection sustained by technology between political, economical, cultural world events has – in this last space – an hybridization effect of the cultures, kept, renewed and the development of the cultural identities.

In the World Development Report issued by the World Bank in 2000 year it is assumed that the world economy scores two parallel processes: globalization and decentralization. As for the former it is said that it consists of transnationalization up to overnationalizing, especially in the fields of trade, finances and top technologies. As for the latter, decentralization consists of delivering by the national government to the local communities of more and more administrative, social educational, bugetary functions, and consequently, the role of the national state will limit to diplomacy, army, and the enactment of the internal legislation.⁸

Democracy needs to be „democratised” – Anthony Giddens has written about this phenomenon in a challenging world⁹; he added that the most important thing for mankind today is the development of the power and civical culture, as well as the transnational organisms transforming - such as European Union - in more opened and reponsible structures. Globalization is one of the most controversial problem in our days, as it gathers together the distant markets and people from all over the world, achieving an great exchange in our lives, wherever we are. Question is if this change is only a good, positive one, or not? In fact, this phenomenon is heavy to be controlled and rulled, even if a lot of researchers try to convince us that globalization is generally speaking a changing good force for our wellfare. Fact is that in the last few decades there were scored important changes in the people’s life standards, in many countries of the world. In this line, Internet revolution and its corollary – e-commerce can be considered that represent the „engine” of international trade, in this world of globalization. Governments try and sometimes succeed to controll the money, products, peole and their ideas that freely move inside the national frontiers, thus going to slower or to stop the progress. But we all know that it is difficult to stop or forbid anything comes naturally.

Globalization represents the beginning of the future proces of political-economical development of the mankind, with cultural influences. Even if for the moment being it is not sure what we could say about the effects on the long term of this challenging world, upon the international community, but it is obvious even now that this globlization process has both a positive and a negative impact. What is good in this procecess first of all the increasing interdependence between the international relations due to globalization brings a new shape to the „national and international security” concept, and the outcome is the growing up of the exogen factors, that are influencing the steady operating of the society. But the status of the international security are ever more influencing the possibility of warranting the national security. Therefore, the preserving the global steadiness, and alloting the assistance for creating such international mechanisms which could guarantee a balanced and sustainable development will become not only a priority, but also one of the main problems for the regional communities. Secondly, but of the same importance is the fact that globalization increases the interaction between countries, which are opening new opportunities for the development of the human civilization, especially in the economic area. As for the trading, technique, and investment exchanges between different countries and regions, they are multiplying, as well as the facilitating the of the human contacts, and the acquiantance with the other nations’ culture are all undoubtly profitable for mankind. Besides these positive aspects, the globalization has also other aspects, not so profitable, as many dangers and risks become regional, or even global. This negative aspects are multiple even because globalization is an uncontrolled process, unleaded, and unguvernable one. Thus, „insecurity arises insecurity on different ways: that of transnational political terrorism, that of illegal traffic of arms and unconventional letale means, traffic of drugs and people, of clandestine migration, of incubation for the destroying arms, of the economical-financial aggression, and of causing the environment catastrophies”¹⁰. It is about the decrease of the safety among others, because of: among others international terrorism, transnational criminality, technological and ecological disasters, uncontrolled expansion of some cultural models of doubtful quality that harm and bring a bad influence to the national and cultural traditions of the nations, becoming threats for their originalty. Thus, anyone could notice that the implementation more and more of the globalization means some uncontrolled risks for the national culture and economy of any country, even going to lose from the nation’s cultural individuality. Jean-Pierre Warnier noted that globalization splits the cultures in „undercultures”: of rap, homosexuality, the third age, footbal fans, etc or „niche”, that do not offer solutions for intergrating the individual persons that are composing them¹¹. Therefore, due to the unequal distribution of the globalization advantageous, the negative aspects of this process will badly reflect especially towards the developing countries, so that these could remain far away of this progress, or even outside it.

2 Dimensions of globalization

In the generic frame of globalization, we can point out some aspects, that gives essence to the concept, and which, by its implications that are in different fields of analysis, and also of the consequences caused on various dimensions. Thus, they could distinguish the following aspects: economical, environment, social, cultural, political.

Some people consider that globalization is not a human process, that is has not only benefits for human beings; but if we consider the fact that trade is increasing the economic growth, anyone could appreciate that its huge advantages for people are fewer and less important than the disadvantages. Only for comparison, one could take into account the terrible experience of the 1930’s protectionism towards the long social-economic explosion (blast) of America and Europe, and then the barriers against trade fell down considerably between the 50’s to 60’s years of twenty century. Jeffrey Sachs and Andrew Warner in a study made by the Harvard University¹² ascertain that those developing countries with an open economy reached an increase of 4,5% per year between 1970 and 1980, meanwhile the others with a closed economy reached an increase of only 0,7% per year. And if we add to this proportion the fact that the economic growth rises double at the open economies at every 16 years, comparing to those closed economies that have to wait almost a hundred year for this rise, will have a more complete image.

The determinant factors of globalization that have enforced this process are: liberalization of the sevices trading (mainly in the field of telecommunications, ensurences and banking), and the liberalization of the capital market, that contribute to creating a global financing market.

It is obvious that life standards in the pour countries do not compare to that of rich countries, and it also is a real tragedy that 1,2 billion of people – that is almost a quarter of the globe population – survive only with a dollar or less per day, and almost 1,6 billion people leave with an income of 1-2 countries. One could say that it is easier to say, than to do, but it could take as example the countries that sometimes were developing countries, and now they have successfully obtained the index of the rich countries; such an example is South Coreea, that more than thirty years poverty was similar to that of Ghana, today being one of the increasing economies. Another example is China, where 100 million of people escape of the total poverty in the last 10 years. The question is: what have these lucky countries in common? And the answer is simple: the opening of commerce. The pour countries that have obtained an economic growth at the level of the rich countries are those which are open to commerce, and how open they are, so rapidly they reach their aim. But trade itself is not enough for casting away the poverty. For example, the abolish of the commercial barriers would not help the countries which are in war. The critics of the free trade argue that population from the pour countries have only to loose after liberalization. On the other hand, a study of World Trade Organisation (WTO) demonstrates that the poverty give up towards the economic growth that the trade liberalization guarantees. So, it can conclude that the liberalization of commerce is a strong and positive contribution for reducing the poverty, thus allowing the population to exploit its productive potential, to ensure economic growth, to stop unsheduled financial infusions from abroad. The World Bank statistics show that after annalysing the economic activity of 80 countries in the last 40 years that the opening enforces the economic growth and that the incomes of the pours are directly pro rata to the total growth. It is obvious that some are losing because of globalization, at the beginning, but as soon as the market barriers are falling down, the competition with the foreign firms will asses the local firms to specialize in the economic fields which they are better possesing and to produce more efficient. And thus, the best will win, and finally the winner is the consumer from these countries.

Another aspects to find solutions for is that of those people who are loosing their jobs, because of globalization and inclusively of trade liberalization. They have to be re-qualified, but anyway not to stop to renounce to a bigger future earning, because of some collateral aspects. In this line it is well known the example of the candels producers could not stop the emergence on the market of the electricity. Or, another more recent example is the burst of Internet all over the world, which almost any government could stop or interdict it. Undoubtly the trade liberalization as well as the new technologies cause changes, but even this explains how it takes place the economic growth, even if some of us loses at the beginning, but as final result all of us win. Some experts’ oppinion is that without capital, nobody could earn from integration, although the majority say that a world trade system could do more for helping the poors. The poor countries do not always comply with the global requirements of trade and sometimes their interests are neglected by the big and strong authorities in this field. Even for this reason, among others it exists the World Trade Organisation, which care to monitor the trade and members of this organization are permanently meant to sustain and help the most poor countries of the world in order to learn these countries how to earn considerable benefits from the world trade system. In a report of WTO it says that its members already obtained a progress regarding the facilitating the access of the less developed countries on the market of the wealthy countries, the enhancing of the techincal assistance and the stronger cooperation between WTO and other specialized organizations which promote the development, having memorandums signed with the World Bank, International Monetary Found and others.

A global economy launches a global system of commercial rules, a global forum for continuing negociation and a global platform for edifying a new notebook of commerce. The world needs a strong WTO, as this institution reflects and represents the global economy, exactly as it exists. Furthermore, WTO represents a framework of administrating and rulling the disputes between estates.

Globalization has an enormous potential of generating growth, but also do not forget that the globalizing process causes „status quo”, that is the integrating stage, weakens the national financial settlement, without giving a satisfying alternative. But it is not the moment of retiring from the future, or to return to the past – a past that clearly demonstrated as the barriers applied by one of another ones can only make our economies more poor. In this line, it is due to mention what Kofi Annan – the General Secretary of the United Nations Organizations (1997-2006) said: „I think that the poverty is poverty not because of the excessive globalization, but because of its insuficiency”. The future has to validate or to infirm this interesting thinking, that may be a good ending of this approach, or a better beginning for mankind.

3 Conclusion

Undoubtly, globalization increases the interaction between countries,facilitating the of the human contacts, giving free way to the economical and financial expansion, to uncontrolled expansion of cultural models, to good or bad in any sense. That is globalization brings a lot of good aspects, but also bad and uncontrolled things, sometimes arising insecurity on different ways. Nevertheless, this global phenomenon is unstopable, but mankind has to find the means for governing and controlling its effects on people and environment, in order to take on only its benefits, and trying to stop its negative influences.

4 References

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Giddens , A. (2003). How Globalization is Reshaping Our Lives, Taylor & Francis, London.

Dreher , A., Gaston, N. & Martens, P. (2008). Measuring Globalisation, Gauging Its Consequences, Springer-Verlag New York, pp. 25-74.

Richter, E. (2010). Politische Systeme und Comparative Politics, IPW, Institut fur Politische Wissenschaft, RWTH, Aachen.

Blommestein, H. (2012). Financial Innovations and the Risk Paradox, Social Science Research Network; Retrieved from: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2033157.

Warnier, J.P. (1999). La mondialisation de la culture, Mass Market Paperback, Editure La Découverte, Paris.

Sachs, J. D. & Warner, A. M. (1995). Natural Resource Abundance and Economic Growth, NBER Working Paper No. 5398.

Stiglitz, J. (2002). La Grande Désillusion, Editure Fayard, Paris.

Waters, M. (2001). Globalization, (Key Ideas), 2nd edition, Kindle edition, Taylor & Francis, London; New York, Routledge.

Albrow, M. (1996). The Global Age: State and Society Beyond Modernity, State University of New York Stony Brook.

Featherstone, M. (1990). Global Culture - Nationalism, Globalization and Modernity, Goldsmiths, University of London, SAGE Publications Ltd..

Zaslavet, A. (2010). Sustainable Development in Globalization Context, Republica Moldova.

World Bank, (2013). Global Program Review -The World Bank Group’s Partnership with the Global Environment Facility, Global Program Review, vol. 1, 6 Dec. 2013, Country, Corporate and Global Evaluations, Retrieved from: http://www.globalevaluations.org.

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